memorial case for photographs and memorabilia

This item is a memorial case made for a friend to display photographs and to store memorabilia and ashes of deceased family members. It seems they all have left us too soon. As a close friend, I also felt the loss.

The case is designed to rest on a shelf that is 34” by 12”. It is about 7 inches tall, and 30 inches long.

I suggested the curved design because it gives a focused look with all the pictures to be arranged in a curve and looking inward toward each other. It also turned out to be a lot more complicated to make than a straight box would have, but that turned out to be a welcome challenge to make the parts align and the top and bottom panels fit accurately.

It is made of cherry and burl walnut. The cherry is dyed with red mahogany and the walnut columns and trim are dyed with a diluted van dyke brown. The burl walnut columns take on the look of stone because of the vein-like grain in the walnut. All parts are finished with shellac and gloss lacquer and protected with car polish. I was pleased to find a piece of figured cherry for the top.

Construction is basically 10 picture frames front and back, joined with 1/4” cherry sides, making 5 boxes. The rear of the case is quarter inch thick finished cherry panels floating in the frames.

The top is removable to allow changing of pictures and box contents. The top is held down on each end with machine screws covered with a sliding dovetail guards. One of the pictures shows the top removed exposing the 5 compartments.

-- joejt